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FARNBOROUGH, England: US aerospace giant Boeing on Thursday signed its second major deal of the Farnborough International Airshow, clinching a multi-billion-dollar sale of 'green' jets to Air China.
But planemaker Airbus, owned by European aerospace group EADS, has grabbed the spotlight since the Farnborough event opened on Monday, thanks to having clinched much bigger deals than its US rival to sell fuel-efficient aircraft.
Boeing, nonetheless, fought back on Thursday, announcing a firm order from state-owned Air China to buy 45 passenger planes worth a total of 6.3 billion dollars (4.0 billion euros).
Air China decided to buy 30 medium-haul 737s and 15 long-haul 777 jets.
"These airplanes are the most fuel efficient in their classes," said Kong Dong, chairman of Air China, the second largest commercial airline in China.
"The 777-300ER will be the backbone of our long-haul international fleet and the new 737-800 will support our hub build-up and our company's domestic strategy," he said.
Boeing didn't have it all its own way on Thursday, however, as Airbus announced an agreement to sell 10 of its new A350 wide-body aircraft worth a combined 2.1 billion dollars to South American consortium Synergy Aerospace.
Synergy Aerospace is the main shareholder in Avianca and SAM airlines in Colombia, Oceanair in Brazil and VIP in Ecuador.
"The A350 XWB is simply the best choice for our affiliates," Synergy Aerospace president German Efromovich said in a statement.
The Synergy deal adds to Airbus' sizeable portfolio of orders won at Farnborough, a week-long event that takes places every two years.
On Wednesday, Asiana Airlines of South Korea agreed to buy 30 Airbus A350 aircraft. The same day Boeing said it had received an order from Malaysia Airlines for 35 medium-range 737-800s worth more than 2.6 billion dollars.
However the order had already noted on Boeing's website and the only new information was the identity of the buyer.
As well as Asian carriers, cash-rich Gulf states have been busy shopping for new planes at Farnborough.
Etihad Airways, the national carrier of the United Arab Emirates, grabbed the attention at the start of the 2008 show, announcing deals on Monday for 100 fuel-efficient Airbus and Boeing passenger planes worth 20.4 billion dollars.
Oil-producing Gulf states such as the UAE are snapping up the latest-developed aircraft thanks to extra revenues earned from record-high oil prices, which topped 147 dollars a barrel last Friday.
Soaring fuel costs, along with the credit crunch, are meanwhile encouraging airlines worldwide to invest in more energy-efficient planes and causing others to collapse.
Etihad decided to buy 55 Airbus jets and 45 Boeing. But again the Boeing deal had already been confirmed by the US group ahead of Farnborough as an "unidentified" buyer.
Boeing's only other major deal won at the British airshow was the sale of 50 737s worth almost 4.0 billion dollars to FlyDubai, a new low-cost airline.
Dubai Aerospace Enterprise meanwhile announced earlier in the week an order for 100 Airbus planes worth 12.6 billion dollars for its leasing operations.
This year's Farnborough event, taking place 60 years since the first show, was attracting the usual mix of industry executives and plane enthusiasts for deal-making and the witnessing of flypasts by civil and military jets.
Canadian planemaker Bombardier announced on Sunday that it planned to launch its eco-friendly CSeries single-aisle passenger jet in 2013 – a plane it promised would "deliver dramatic energy savings".
German airline Lufthansa said it was interested in buying 30 CSeries jets in the role of launch-customer, adding it could increase the order to 60, which would earn Bombardier a total of 2.8 billion dollars.
- AFP/so
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